Victor Brauner “The Surrealist” (Le Surréaliste) at Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice in Italy

Brauner, The Surrealist Painting - Oil on Canvas (60 x 45 cm) January 1947

Victor Brauner was born on June 15, 1903, in Romania.

In 1921 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest and began painting landscapes in Paul Cézanne's style.

Victor Brauner moved to Paris in 1930 and became a Constantin Brancusi friend, a Romanian like him.

In 1933, he was introduced into the Surrealist movement by Yves Tanguy.

His solo exhibition in 1934 at the Pierre Gallery in Paris was a failure, and Brauner decided to return to Bucharest in 1935.

In 1938 he returned to Paris, where Tanguy shared his accommodation with him.

Brauner, The Surrealist He painted characters with mutilated eyes, premonitory portraits of what would happen to him the same year when he lost an eye following a fight.

When World War II began, Brauner fled to Marseilles, where he kept in touch with the surrealists.

He then found refuge in Switzerland before returning to Paris in 1947.

He was exhibited at the Venice Art Biennale in 1954 and 1966.

Victor Brauner died on March 12, 1966, in Paris.

In his picture “The Surrealist”, Victor Brauner used tarot motifs for his medieval costume self-portrait.

With its prediction cards of the future, the tarot was one of the surrealists' themes.

Brauner, The Surrealist The juggler's card was chosen here by Brauner for this painting.

The juggler symbolizes each person's ability to manipulate their destiny with their imagination and intelligence.

The boundless creative power of man is represented here by the symbol of infinity in the juggler's headdress.

As in the tarot, Victor Brauner's magician-juggler uses a stick, a goblet, a sword, gold coins, and symbols correlated to fire, water, air and earth.

All these elements are skilfully controlled by the juggler, at the disposal of the Surrealist artist who wields his wand here as if it were a magic pencil.

Brauner, The Surrealist